Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected at the Vatican Sunday for the canonisation of an Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, will be made the first millennial saint by Pope Leo XIV in a solemn ceremony in St Peter’s Square.

The teenager’s body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.

The canonisation of the so-called “cyber-apostle” was initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died. It will be US-born Pope Leo’s first such ceremony.

Among the crowds expected at the Vatican for the mass, which begins at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), are over 800 people travelling to Rome o

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